Horizons
by Malconvoker
Summary: Spoilers for Bastion - The Kid wouldn't give up and for that, he was rewarded with a great power and responsibility. Such is the fate of the Solar Exalted. A crossover with Exalted, will include OCs. Eventual KidxZia.
1. The Dawn

**The Dawn**

His knees buckled. The weight of the shard as well as another man was dragging him down, not to mention being under fire from all angles. The Ura seemed intent on not letting him and Zulf leave alive. With the force they had been fighting suddenly unable to fight back, the Ura took the initiative.

The Ura closed in around the Kid. All of them readied their weapons, ready to kill both sources of their grief.

The Kid closed his eyes. He was so tired. He hurt everywhere. He didn't want to fight anymore.

"So you will just give up." A voice seemed to fill his mind. It echoed around him but only to him, a voice of infinite command and infinite pride, yet full of compassion and patience.

'I'm tired' the Kid responded

"You can rest later"

'It hurts'

"Wounds can be healed"

'I don't want to fight'

"Command otherwise"

'I want to stop'

"If you do, then all this would have been for nothing"

In a flash, the Kid saw the Bastion. He saw Rucks and Zia waiting. He felt Zulf on his shoulder. He saw every hardship he had endured. He felt every life he had taken. He watched the little baby pecker hatch. All this. All this sadness and joy. Friends, enemies, death, life. He felt purpose, drive, direction.

He saw his new friends smile.

He was not going to give that up.

The Kid rose to his feet and shone.

A light like the new day's sun cresting the horizon filled the snowy pathway. The Ura, who had been so certain they would end this, stepped back from their prey. The Kid stood there, Zulf held over his shoulder, the shard under his arm, all wounds and weakness gone and a sunburst of gold blazing on his forehead. Around him, the glowing golden light formed into an ethereal army at the Kid's back and upon his head sat a crown of pure sunlight. The air was filled with whispers of glory and praise, yet no one had said a word. The Ura watched him, fear and awe spreading through their ranks. They all listened when he said one word.

"Move"

Slowly, the Ura step back, lowering their weapons as the Kid walked by them. They all watched him pass, every pair of eyes reflecting back a different emotion. Many were afraid, others were in awe, but most importantly, they all held respect. Despite what each of them thought of him, he had come all this way, fought to the shard and was rescuing a man they knew had betrayed him.

It was that drive, that courage and that compassion that the Ura could yield to.

The ranks of warriors parted to let the Kid through, framing the path to his way out. The Kid made sure to look at the faces of those he passed. So many emotions could be seen in their eyes, it surprised the Kid somewhat to see not just negative ones. He made his way to the swirling vortex of wind that led to the Skyways. As the wind whipped his hair around, he turned to face the people who had watched him and, with an honest smile, said one last word.

"Thanks."

* * *

At the top of a building, unaware to either the Kid or any Ura, stood a figure cloaked in blue. The golden light she had seen shocked and disturbed her but not as much as the sight of a Solar Exalt in her bubble of reality. She was old enough to know what those monsters could do and what they could become, but she had not seen one since they had been vanquished and to say the new Dawn worried her would have been an understatement. What had been happening in Creation that a Solar would ever exalt again, let alone in this sanctuary in the Wyld?

She tried to remember when the last time she had had contact with any members of her kind. It had been years, long enough for the people of the continent sized reality to forget Creation even existed. Yet, even with her mind, she was having trouble remembering any of her kind besides the one she came here with, the one who had helped her establish order in the chaos of the Wyld. They had lead both mortal and god through the Wyld to new reality, becoming worshiped as gods themselves. She could remember some others coming to teach them about the then new accomplishment that had been moonsilver tattoos and both of them underwent the ritual, even though their minds and bodies were warped by the chaos they so hated. Ironic, considering how much Pyth had loved his order.

But now. Now that their order and reality had become so firm as to rival Creation itself, now that there were close to no traces of Wyld taint in the mortals she had watched grow, now that the war between Caelondia and the Ura was waning, this calamity happened and took most of the mortals, all of the gods and her peer with it. She was the last of these mortals' so-called gods left.

The woman removed her cloak and, in place of hair, a cobra's hood spread, the cobalt color augmented with intricate designs of silver and black. A sad, beautiful and otherworldly face looked to the heavens, the sky full of stars, and found hers. She knew it wasn't hers but she loved it all the same. She felt a soft light touch her face as the sky turned lighter. Micia, the mother of the small reality, wept for the loss of her millennium of building.

* * *

When the Kid touched down at the Bastion, he did so with more grace than he ever had. He had never not landed on his face after using the Skyway and, given what he had just been through, landing on his feet while being burdened and tired was a big accomplishment. Except that he wasn't burdened and he wasn't tired. He carefully set Zulf down, trying not to injure the man further. Zulf winced a little but, from what the Kid could tell, he seemed to just be asleep; passed out from his ordeal and injuries. The Kid would have to ask Zia later about patching the man up but first he had something to do.

He walked to the monument. Holding the shard out, he set it into the appropriate place and watched as the Bastion pulled it self together completely. The Kid sighed as it finished, the morning sun washing over the buildings and monuments and their small tents, lighting up his work, the product of his blood, sweat and tears, for everyone to see.

But no one was there.

A momentary jolt of panic shot through the Kid as he looked around for Zia and Rucks. He was about to run into every building, but a voice called out to him from the south end of the Bastion.

"You're back."

The Kid spun around to see Rucks leaning on his cane, a smile spread behind his white mustache. His smile faltered a bit as he caught sight of Zulf but he quickly turned his attention back to the Kid, proud smile back. Zia appeared a second later, coming up a set of stairs that the Kid had never noticed before. She smiled upon seeing him, but the smile was quickly shadowed by some other worry.

"Come on down with us" Rucks waved a hand to the stairs he and Zia came from. The Kid didn't move, a quick glance at Zulf betraying his worries. "Don't worry 'bout him, Kid." Rucks said as he began to walk back to the stairs "He'll be fine while we figure out what to do now."

With one last glance at the injured man, the Kid followed the two others down stairs. Zia offered another smile but it was unsure and full of worry and a little of something else the Kid thought was fear. Together, they descended the stairs to a place under the Bastion.

If the monument was like the heart of the Bastion, this place was the mind. It looked like a control room, not that the Kid had seen any before, but it did look similar to something he remembered as if from a forgotten dream. He shook those faded memories away and followed Rucks and Zia across a thin walkway to the center where a large console sat.

"You fixed the Bastion, Kid." Rucks started "I'm grateful for that. Felt I should at least finally say that. Sorry I didn' say it sooner" The older man placed a hand on the Kid's shoulder, a smile once again tugging at his lips. He turned back to the machine, "Now, we have two options. The Bastion was built the way it was for a reason. With all the cores back, we can start one of its major functions. We can go back to before the Calamity. We can undo everything that's happened and fix all this and forget it. And, with hope, we'll avoid this path again."

"Or we can leave!" Zia blurted out. The two men turned to her as she shuffled under the sudden attention "I-um, Ruck said that the Bastion was made to be used as an evacuation transport, something we could all use if something went wrong. If we use it to leave, we can go new places, start new lives, I don't know. It's just…"she clutched her harp guitar to her chest "I don't want to forget everything that's happened, everything that made me happy." Small tears began to well up in her eyes "If that makes me selfish, I don't know; I don't care."

The Kid felt a hand on his shoulder as Rucks walked up next to him "Thing is, we think you should choose what to do, seein' how you did all the hard work gettin' this place runnin'." The Kid looked at the man who had been his mentor since this whole thing began with a puzzled look. Rucks chuckled roughly "Take all the time you need." The Kid looked between his two companions and nodded before turning around and walking to the stairs. Just as he reached the first step, Zia muttered something, probably something she meant to keep to herself, but the Kid could hear it as clear as if she was standing next to him.

A tear escaped from her eye as she whispered "Any moment I'd want to live again, happened after the Calamity, not before"

* * *

The Kid reached the top of the stairs and glanced out across the horizon. It had changed so much, the mountains gone, the Wilds ripped and scattered and the Boundless Sea pouring down into whatever was below it. But for all the differences, he really couldn't see anything bad about it. He shook his head at that thought. Of course it was bad, thousands of people were dead, the world was ripped to pieces and who knew what would happen to them, even with the Bastion.

Even with those reasserted thoughts, the idea of going back to before all of it had happened never entered into his mind until Ruck had told him they could go back. And even if they did, none of them would remember, and if they didn't remember what would stop them from doing it all over again?

The Kid closed his eyes and sighed. He knew where Rucks and Zia stood on the matter, he understood why they decided to let him choose but he didn't know what the right choice was. Or if there even was one.

A soft peep and a light weight on his shoulder pulled the Kid out of his thoughts. Their little pecker watched him from his shoulder, tilting its head from side to side before pecking at his cheek. Whatever the Kid had been thinking was driven out by a single thought, 'We never named him.'

The pecker took off and flew back to the heart of the Bastion, taking the Kid's attention with it. The baby bird landed near to where Zulf lay, not recognizing the prone man; it had been born after he had left. Their little squirt was floating around Zulf, fussing over his injuries in its weird pseudo-language and attempting to drag a blanket over him. Their anklegator circled the group, not like the predator she was, but protective of this weird family she now had.

It broke the Kid's heart to think of taking that away.

He turned back to the horizon, the colors of the dawn glowing bright. A whole night was spent on this ordeal. Coming back had been easy, he hadn't been tired when he came back but this decision was taking all of the energy he had to even try to sort out. What should he do?

'What did he want to do?'

The thought struck his mind blank. What did he want? What did the world hold for him before? Not much, at least nothing he wanted anymore. What did it hold for him now? It held everything that gave him the strength to stand up in the Tazal Terminals. Friends and a home was all he needed, and he could honestly say it was all he wanted.

As the rays of the rising sun filled the sky, Zia's whispers echoed in his mind 'Any moment I'd want to live again, happened after the Calamity, not before.' The Kid looked unflinchingly at the dawn of the new day before taking a deep breath and walked back down the stairs. And when Zia and Rucks turned to hear his answer, the Kid very simply said two words.

"We leave."


	2. The Edge

**The Edge**

They had decided to go northwest, across the remains of the Boundless Sea.

The Kid and Zia took a trip into the remains of Caelondia gathering as much left over food as they could. It turned out the Kid could carry a lot more than he remembered ever being able to lift, a trait that would come in handy when Zia suggested they find extra clothes. "It'll be cold on the sea, really windy" she said as she rummaged through a chest of drawers.

Every time they came across the dead, they stopped. The Kid had seen them before but when he first found Zia, he tried to keep her from them. The Ura girl searched every face, trying to see if she had known them, even remotely, and bowed, the only thing she could do for them.

They only encountered a few windbags and no security turrets on the trip, but still, the Kid had taken along his hammer and musket. No harm in being prepared. They returned to the Bastion laden with blankets, clothes, extra supplies that the Bastion itself could not provide for them and not nearly enough food.

Rucks had put his skills to good use launching and setting course for the Bastion to fly. When the Kid and Zia returned, he made sure they were right next to him when they took off, walking them through the steps and having them both recite it back to him. When Zia asked why, Rucks simply told them "'Cause I won't always be around." Zia quickly told him not to talk like that.

Zulf had yet to awaken. Zia had used what knowledge she had and, coupled with Rucks' old army training, was able to patch the man up as best she could. Cuts everywhere, bruises in even more places, a cracked rib and an extremely narrow miss near his lung, a bolt stopped by the telescope that the Kid had given him before. Still, he would not wake up and Zia worried for his health. Carefully, they moved the man to one of the tents they kept pitched in the courtyard, out of the elements, safe for now.

* * *

Travel over the Boundless Sea was interesting. Only Rucks really knew what it was like to be on the ocean and, several times, sat them down on the waves to teach the Kid or Zia, whoever was closer, a tip for living on the sea. The Kid had heard about some things from when he visited the docks, like how to make salt water drinkable, but he had never known that you could eat seaweed. Drying the plant along with the fish they had been able to catch would help them stretch their supplies, the ones that wouldn't keep.

Several times they would pass over rifts in the land beneath the waves. The water fell off the edge loudly, enough to be heard a good distance away and to give them good warning to pull in fishing lines and water buckets they left on the edge. The loud roar of the water was eerie after the relative quiet of the waves and wind, a constant reminder if they got too comfortable with a large stretch of sea.

By the fourth day, they could make out the edge of something. Rucks said it was wrong, they should have reached more land before they reached the edge. What lay beyond the world was always a curious and dangerous topic since no one ever came back. Shifting colors and odd shapes grew on the horizon as they drew closer to the very edge of their reality.

By the fifth day, they could see the place beyond.

On the fifth night, Zulf woke up.

* * *

Rucks and Zia were already asleep when the Kid emerged from the lower levels of the Bastion, having set them down for the night. He headed for his tent to turn in for the night when he saw a shadow out of place at the other side of the Bastion. Silhouetted against the changing horizon, one hand clutched to his side, the other gripping a wall like a lifeline, staring into the ocean below, was Zulf.

The Kid hesitated. He could almost feel the emotions coming off the man, all a mix of pain and anger, shame and confusion, sadness and relief and an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. The Kid quietly walked towards the broken man, stopping only just a few feet behind him when Zulf found his voice.

"Why?" the question was loaded with so many more. Left unsaid were:

Why are we here?

Why am I still alive?

Why didn't they kill me?

Why didn't you?

Why did you save me?

He wavered on the edge a little. The Kid placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. Zulf turned to face him and the Kid saw just how lost he was. The look on his face was one the Kid had only seen once before but once was enough to recognize a man in despair. Once again, he found Zulf standing at the edge with nothing left, nothing to live for, no path to follow, no one to turn to.

On the wind, the Kid could hear a whisper, a hint of a comforting but malevolent voice. Whatever it was, Zulf seemed to hear it as well, turning his head as if to hear it better. The Kid didn't know what it was or what it would mean but he wouldn't let Zulf listen to it.

"A second chance"

Zulf startled at the sound of the Kid's voice, given how quiet it was and how rarely the Kid spoke, turning his attention back to him and away from the whisper on the wind. It took a few moments for him to process what had just been said but as he did, the look of hopelessness was replaced by one of distress. "Even after everything I've done? After all the things I…that I-" His grip tightened on his side, where his cracked rib was, as he let out a shuttering gasp. The Kid kept his steadying grip on the man's shoulder, feeling Zulf sway a bit.

He took a few deep breaths, wincing at each of them before he tried to continue "I don't deserve it. All I've done is…is ruin my people and betray you and fail at everything I've worked for. There's nothing left for me." He took another shuttering breath, tears escaping his eyes as he glanced down into the ocean "I don't deserve it. I shouldn't be alive but I'm too scared to do anything about it. I want to have something to live for! I want a second chance!" The poor man was falling into hysterics, his voice thick with emotions as tears ran down his face "I don't deserve it, but I want to make up for what I've done." He gave a weak and breathy laugh, one that sounded only just this side of sane, continuing to stare into the ocean below "I guess that makes me a horrible person."

The Kid didn't answer immediately; this wasn't something to answer lightly. The two of them stood there in silence, the wind humming around them as the sea fell below in a distant roar, staring into the distant swirling colors beyond the world.

"You're human"

Zulf jumped at the sound, a confused look crossing his face. He was about to piece together a response but the Kid cut him off, "Ain't wrong to wanna second chance. You trying to fix the problems you caused? Be a better person?" Zulf nodded dumbly, somewhat surprised by the sheer amount the Kid was saying. The Kid gave the Ura a smile and continued "Then you're already a better person for it"

Zulf was stunned by the sentiment behind the words. He did truly want to fix everything he caused and as much as it would wound what little ego had left, he would beg for the forgiveness of those who called the Bastion their home. He was scared to ask for that forgiveness yet, instead asking himself a question "is that enough?"

"'t's a good start." The Kid answered. He looked back out over the sea, staring into the colors of the place outside of the world and, seeing something beyond it, said "I'll be there to help keep you headed down the right path."

"We all will" the two of them turned to see Zia smiling with sincerity, her dark hair streaming behind her in the wind. She walked up between the two men, placing a hand on their shoulders and said with reassurance "As long as we're together, everything will be fine. We'll be there for each other. That's what friends do." It wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

They were friends.

And with more strength than either man had seen the small Ura girl show, Zia pulled both of them into a group hug. Stunned at first, the Kid recovered with a smile and wrapped an arm around her waist and placed a hand on Zulf's back. Zulf, on the other hand, immediately latched onto the compassionate gesture like a starving man, heedless of his injuries. They stood there together in silence, letting each other's presence sooth the others before Zia spoke again "We're all starting over. Now on, we stick together."

The Kid nodded "Keep each other goin' the right way"

"I promise" Zulf said, voice thick with tears "I promise I'll be better. I'll make everything up. I'll stay here."

* * *

Across the courtyard of the Bastion, watching from the entrance to his tent, stood Rucks. The commotion had drawn him out of not quite sleep to watch the meeting from a distance. Whatever the three companions were doing, he did not feel he had any part in it. He would give his apology to Zulf when the time came but for now he would let them three be.

He watched as Zia pulled out of the hug first, dragging a tired Zulf to find a meal, looking determined to have the man healthy. The amusing spectacle drew a quite huff of laughter from the old man before his attention was drawn to the Kid, who still stood at the edge of the Bastion, a smile on his face as he watched his friends go.

The two's eyes met for a moment before the Kid turned to look once again beyond the world. Rucks shrugged, he would probably never understand the way that boy's mind worked and he didn't have the time to try to work it out. Tomorrow they would be passing into the same place the Kid was studying, a thought that worried Rucks. He sighed; they'd cross that bridge when they got to it. With one last glance around, Rucks climbed back into his tent.

* * *

The Kid stood at the edge, watching. He really didn't know just what to expect tomorrow. It worried him, and though he would never say, it scared him as well. The stories of the horrors that lie beyond reached as far as Caelondia, as did the old tales of Pyth's crusade to sure up the walls of reality and what being were fought. He knew only stories, and many in not much detail.

He looked up to the waxing moon, searching her bright face for answers. There was nothing at first but he felt a reassuring presence in her light. Maybe it would be alright; maybe they would find somewhere to live peacefully, somewhere in the beyond.

The Kid turned his back to the swirling chaos and the wind and the sea. As if feeling the presence of night, the sea calmed its waves as the wind slowed to whispers. It seemed peaceful, almost too much so, but it didn't stop the broken world from being beautiful under the light of the moon.

* * *

Happy New Year.

Exalted-y stuff is coming. So are the OCs


End file.
